Hungry and BUSY!!

WOW have I been a busy girl or what. This whole working thing is so completely different.  I wanna say new, but it's not I've been working since I was 14!! Rita's Water Ice baby!! Up until almost four years ago, wow, I have always had a job, then it just made sense to stay home and be a wife and Mom. BUT I'm so happy again!! I never thought being back in retail would give me such a wonderful feeling but it definitely helps to have extremely nice coworkers and the closeness of the job (distance wise) is incredible. ANyway since starting work and taking care of my two year old, two dogs, hubby, and a three story house, I'm pooped! First I didn't have my computer for a while so I couldn't blog Now I'm just so darn busy. But I'm loving life yes of course we are still struggling with bills and money and such BUT we have incredible family members who, if i step up and say I need something, they will answer and help out the best they can. It's amazing that when you put your stubborn pride wall down How many people are actually really there to help you. I LOVE YOU MOM and DAD!!!
Like I said tho even with all the struggles I can still be happy which with the way things have been going in the past few years its a really great thing for me to say I'm truly happy, and I am. I'm even in the kitchen again. Yes I know i made a menu said I was gonna stick with it but lets just face it with our schedules and certain appetites it's hard to stay on track. especially when the man of the house is in the mood for pasta n meat sauce and I was so looking forward to chicken and broccoli I'd have to switch things up a bit..... so coming at you here and probably in a couple other posts SOME NEW recipes.....
So tonight it was Eggplant Parm. for momma and Spaghetti and meat sauce for the boys!!

Cooking the ground meat frozen (something i do often lack of remembering to take something out to defrost)

the meat sauce 1lb meat, 1 28ozcan of tomatoes, 1onion, 2garlic cloves minced

1 eggplant breaded with egg and itailian breadcrumbs

used some tomato sauce and some shredded mozzarella cheese and broiled the eggplant to melt cheese

cooked pasta as directed and POOf!! eggplant parm and s'getties

Easy Peesy!

SO one of my favorite meals and fastest dinners to make is TACOS!!.... I dunno why but I have developed an never ending craving for mexican food especially Tacos. I'm pretty sure these cravings are left over from pregnancy two years ago but I always satisfy my cravings. AND an easy way to do this IS Taco Bell taco kit! I don't do box kits for dinner but for taco and hamburger helper  for me they are heaven sent. Of course i doctor the meals up a bit you know use fresh herbs and garlic and add veggies whereever possible. 

SO I always start off with the usual 1lb of ground meat, tomato, lettuce, shredded cheese, and sour cream. I get the Hard and soft variation kit Everyone stays happy. Now I 've tried various taco kits and since the economy started getting bad the soft tortillas in other kits were becoming to thin and unable to really fill and eat. Me and my BF test ran many kits and have decided that we are never unsatisfied with Taco Bell's. 

The fixings out for display .... I also always add a half a can of corn kernals for extra filling and veggies!! It's 

how the taco trucks around the city make their fillings.

He Loves his tacos too!!

Ok thats it just expressing my love for Taco Kits!

p.s. dont mind all the clutter mess thats ...everywhere!

Misrepresentation!

SO I've been inspired!! 

I love getting a new magazine and sitting down and actually being able to read from front to back. I mean its sad to think that i don't get to buy a magazine that often or buy new books, I simply don't have a budget for them. So i usually turn to the internet to look up magazine websites and read (stalk ) blogs that I love. But I have to say nothing is better then going back to my roots of  inspiration hence the magazines and books. I could get a library card, of course, but you see my library is very small and hardly gets anything new in stock, sad to say. 

SO today I got two new magazines for August, Everyday by Rachel Ray and Everyday Food, a Martha Stewart magazine. well I've been reading and had to take a break because I have waves and waves of inspiration flowing through me. I want to go out and cook everything in those pages. But instead I practice some self control and thought about my budget and shopping list I wrote previously. You see there is something lacking in my blog posts that i finally see clearly now. 

I Do Not Represent Myself  as Truly as I thought I would.

Instead I have kept my blog simple, wordy with my thoughts, my crazy thoughts that run over and over through my head. I think I finally want to start being myself on my blog as well as in real life. Be true to myself and be true to anyone who chooses to stop by and read. 

I want to be able to inspire as much as others have inspired me.

Other women bloggers, magazine chiefs and articles, and everywhere in between.

I think I finally found my blogging niche I kept reading about when I first started this blog.

So to get back to my original reason of post before tearing into another deep thought, I have been inspired to try and find the easiest, cheapest, healthiest recipes or me and my family. SO a blog or two ago I wrote a menu up and was going to stick to it, but I wrote the menu before knowing my budget for the week. Stupid for me to do but its what I always do and then I switch things up. 

Yeah I write a ton of lists on a daily basis, I believe it keeps me sane.  

So I move on today to rewrite my shopping list  and menu and try to stick to the cheapest, easiest, healthiest recipes for everyone in my family to enjoy. 

I do intend on cashing in on the zucchini, eggplant, tomatoes, and corn this week considering they are whats in season. 

I challenge myself to be true, to be real, to write what I really feel and don't hold back.

I challenge myself to meet my menu and recipe goals and share with all of you.

Finally, I challenge myself  to be successful in what I'm trying to do here. ( Be an Inspiration!)

A 4th of July prayer for you all... Enjoy your festivities! 

Heavenly Father, purify in all the people of this land their love for the nation according to the mind of your Son Jesus Christ, who knew what was good for the peace of His land and people. May everyone strive by word and action to foster peace among the people of all social classes and creeds, so that, living in harmony and justice, they may be a Christian light to other nations, such as your Son would have them be.

From The Catholic Prayer Book compiled by Msgr. Michael Buckley

SUNNY DAYS the KIDDIES will PLAY

Since the weather has gotten warmer and my child has become incredibly rambunctious the only solution has been to retreat to the park in the early afternoon.








My Johnny has become an expert tree climber ( mommy has a nervous breakdown each time he runs for that tree) 

He thinks  the tree is his throne!!
















My little prince is a boy through and through.

My dog Coco is still the better tree climber in the family. She'll jump up all by herself!

Hanging by the "beach" (living in the city we work with what we got since we live by the river we therefore have a beach). My Johnny collecting rocks and sticks. We learned how to skip rocks in the water. My son has an incredible arm!!

And to end our lovely days in the park we usually run around in the grass ( we race) Johnny's favorite thing is to get Mommy to run all he has to say is " ready, set, GO!" and we usually take of from wherever we stand.
So we'll run around and pick some "wishies" to blow into the nice breeze.


I Love our family outings at the park. It gives us time to play and run and spend time together and get back into nature.
Hope you all have somewhere you like to retreat to with your families.

I am Inspired

I have been inspired lately by .. well... everything! the weather, the season, the internet, my friends, my job....  I want to do somethings on my list. I've been hearing it alot, people talking about there "lists" Mine is quite extensive and keeps on getting bigger(longer). I just got a job which is exciting for me but not many hours and not a great pay but its something for me to have for my self. SO i can do the things I want to do!
Soo todays inspiration is putting together and week full of recipes that are new to me but will still be enjoyed by my family so that is m post for today. A week full of budget friendly healthy easy recipes that satisfy. And as I attempt each recipe I will post about it since I got such a huge response from my stuffed shells and cake balls. haha well huge for me. Plus it will help me start blogging again and be involved within my own little world.

WEEK 1
-Shrimp and Asparagus Risotto
-Quesadillas
-Pulled bbq pork
-grilled pizza
-steak Kabobs
I think thats a good variety that everyone will love.

Prayers Please!

When is it when everything seems to be going well, something dramatic happens that makes you look at life in a whole new way. i think its God's funny way of making you worry while forcing you to talk about certain fears. I think its also his way at telling us "things can always get worse". I like to be the optimist and think "if we're so far on the bottom, it couldn't get any worse"
You see my Bf's cousin was critically injured last night. My boy came home from work and was trying to take a nap when his phone started ringing like crazy. Here I am making dinner, relaxing with the family, looking forward to our night in and then John is running out the door to get to the hospital. My man is amazing though. Instead of breaking down or doing anything irrational He acted like more of a babysitter, mediator, and taxi driver. He had to break up fights, make sure everyone was ok ( who couldn't handle themselves or scared they might do something crazy).>>>> anyway this really isn't my story to tell but This family def. needs all the prayers they can get. They may not be my family and i may not be that close with them, but its my boyfriends family and that is more than enough for me.

IM BACK!!

I feel like I haven't had internet in forever. Well i kinda haven't its been about two months without it and to be honest I think it was a great thing because me and my family are doing better than ever. I just read my last blog and realized how lost i was two months ago. Me and the boy are doing great. It took some serious events and long tearful discussions to get to where we are but we both realize that without each other we would have no one because in all honesty WE are the only ones who make each other happy ( besides ourselves) and we are the only ones who want to see ourselves succeed. Lately it seems that people we have been surrounding ourselves with find some way to bring us down. Now i thought that was impossible because we def. have hit rock bottom. Wehn it comes to our financial situation we are struggling, but i broke down and asked my parents for some help, found a job and have been supporting my man every way possible to help him get back on his feet again. I only work minimal hours which is good and bad. I wish i could work more for better income but it still gives me the time i need to keep my lifestyle when it comes to raising my son. I love my job, back in retail is exactly where I'm supposed to be, strange how when i was younger I hated working in retail and hated how my bosses would think it was the end of the world if the store wasn't exactly right. But now i guess I'm just like that because I love being back in a clothing store.
So ever since our internet and cable got turned off (lack of money and tv n computers are not necessities in my book) me and the hubs and our little one started taking the dogs to the park and getting outside. It has been beautiful! Exercising, getting fresh air, getting out of the house and enjoying our lives. Living the simple life in every way. Because we have too but it has been a blessing. We have reconnected as a family and really gotten to know one another again. I realized who is important in my life and who i really don't need in my life and for that I am grateful! SO now I'm back online and things are going to continue to be different but we"re happy this way. I'm in love with life again. Things are looking up and I never wanna look back.
And special thanks to my mom and dad without the two of them, my family would be suffering along with struggling!!